Red matter and green blood; Vulkan runs on Linux

Last week AMD released a new GPU-PRO Beta driver stack and this Monday, NVIDIA released the 364.12 beta driver, both of which support Vulkan and meant that Phoronix had a lot of work to do. Up for testing were the GTX 950, 960, 970, 980, and 980 Ti as well as the R9 Fury, 290 and 285. Logically, they used the Talos Principal test, their results compare not only the cards but also the performance delta between OpenGL and Vulkan and finished up with several OpenGL benchmarks to see if there were any performance improvements from the new drivers. The results look good for Vulkan as it beats OpenGL across the board as you can see in the review.

"Thanks to AMD having released their new GPU-PRO "hybrid" Linux driver a few days ago, there is now Vulkan API support for Radeon GPU owners on Linux. This new AMD Linux driver holds much potential and the closed-source bits are now limited to user-space, among other benefits covered in dozens of Phoronix articles over recent months. With having this new driver in hand plus NVIDIA promoting their Vulkan support to the 364 Linux driver series, it's a great time for some benchmarking. Here are OpenGL and Vulkan atop Ubuntu 16.04 Linux for both AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards."

Too bad that the AMD's OpenGL performance is still terrible on Linux. While it's good that their Vulkan-side is showing some promise, they are still seriously leaving Linux-gamers without proper support. As far as I am aware, they have no real intentions to fix their OpenGL issues any time soon.

I find it funny that after that snip of Linus Torvalds looking at a camera and saying, "Nvidia, FUCK YOU!" while flipping the bird Nvidia's linux-side drivers have gotten much better.
I still wouldn't say that either RTG or Nvidia's linux-side drivers compare to their window counterpart but I suppose any improvement is better than none when people with R9 Fury X's are getting 30 fps in some games.

Heh that punch line is taken so much out of it original context, that actual message what Linus wanted to send is gone. Nvidia linux drivers has always been quite good, not even Torvalds is denying that. What he wanted to say working with nvidia devs has been pain and misery(communication with resolving bugs and no help for open source nouveau driver team).

Heyyo, if I remember correctly it was over the Nvidia optimus technology and how Nvidia wasn't making it easy to get it supported on Linux. Didn't have anything to do with their OpenGL performance under Linux. Tbh even before the fu Nvidia thing they still had the best OpenGL performance. AMD is still poop so I haven't bothered with my MSI R9 390 Gaming 8G with Linux since I'm waiting for more games and Vulkan before I start tinkering again. AMD definitely has a smaller driver team than Nvidia so with the gains from Vulkan? I'm impressed they've gotten more competitive. Hopefully AMD can further reduce that gap and dare I say match windows performance.

The comment and middle finger from Linus Torvalds was precisely because NVidia chose to keep all their stuff closed in the proprietary driver and not cooperate with the Linux kernel community.
The open source efforts of NVidia are only slowly progressing, while AMD is actively contributing to the point that their open source driver is now roughly as fast as the closed one in many cases (much work remains though).

As usual Nvidia punching above their price on Linux. And in a test using an API which borrows heavily from an API developed by AMD no less.
I really wish AMD would just get acquired by some preferably non-US based company willing to throw a lot of money their way to make their hardware competitive again.

Wow really? The last few years AMD has been trying to get on top using brute force instead of innovation. They've been just throwing more stream processors at the problem. The Fury cards are a step in the right direction through and I hope they keep it up. I have no brand loyalty whatsoever but I happen to like AMD and I want them to survive.

I wish that Phoronix would get that Lenovo Y700 – 80NY0006US laptop SKU with the FX8800P APU and test it with these drivers under some Linux OS builds. It's nice that they are testing the gaming cards out, but I want to see how this AMD Carrizo based laptop performs with the Vulkan drivers with a Linux distro installed, as it is the only AMD APU based laptop with AMD's latest GCN graphics, until Polaris arrives. The Lenovo Y700 also comes with a discrete GPU. So dual laptop graphics under the Linux kernel and Vulkan could also be tested.

I can't wait for AMD's Zen based APUs to arrive, and hopefully there will soon be some Linux based Laptop OEMs starting to offer Laptops with AMD APUs! I really want to transition over to Linux, but Websites like Phoronix and PCPer, and others need to begin doing more laptop testing with Linux OS builds installed, for Vulkan testing and that includes Steam OS testing on some laptop SKUs.

Currently the Y700 – 80NY0006US is still for sale, but as of now no one has tested it under Linux, or done any Vulkan testing with this laptop. For testing this laptop SKU is the latest AMD technology, APU and latest GCN Integrated graphics, until the Carrizo/Bristol Ridge based refresh SKUs start arriving and before Zen arrives for laptops in 2017, Zen is only coming to the PC based systems this year.

The Y700 model that Ian tested in that article is different from the standard us spec Y700 that is being mentioned. I think the Y700 model that most people have in the US does indeed support dual graphics.

It's probably the OEM not taking the time to get the driver support there at release time, but this Laptop SKU needs to be tested under linux a an example of the latest laptop technology that AMD currently, so Phoronix needs to at least try the Y700 – 80NY0006US laptop as a test case for Linux/Vulkan on AMD's latest GCN based APUs, before the Carrizo/Bristol Ridge based refresh SKUs start arriving.

Not anyone that spends any FUCKING money. JESUS you NERDS are insane. Stfu about Linux, no one (that matters) gives a shit.

Anyway, Ryan, a little better this time. This should be the "Entry Level" Build, but as always your build lacks ANY style, and it's clear your woman is with you for other reasons , than your sense of style -or lack there of. Ryan might have a big weener or whatever, but he misses the mark, always when it comes to taste. Although, at least their is no AMD junk in this one. Or any of them really. Ryan has the experience to know that AMD shit is a waste of time. From shit drivers and massive failure rates this gen., to just horrible overall engineering and design.

So yeah, not a bad build at all, for an entry level VR Rig, but it could be better. We just must expect a lot more from an expert such as you Rydawg.

Ggwp tho a solid 8/10, but next time only use Intel, MSI, and Corsair Components, and for fucks sake get some upgrades cables from Corsair, and their sexy AF and so fans. Not every damn thing needs to be ALL function. This is why girls don't like geeks/NERDS.

Yeah, if only there were servers running Linux, home NAS devices, or maybe even some gaming initiative as an alternate to Windows.

I'm not sure if you realize just how RUDE your entire comment is. Telling Ryan we "expect more" from him?

I did laugh though when you said he needed to upgrade the cables and get "sexy" fans because it doesn't need to be all function... because being all function is why girls don't like geeks/NERDS? Yeah, that made NO sense.